[Book review] The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Nov 30th, 2025

review

I learned of Han Kang after her acceptance of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2024. She was rewarded the prize in recognition of her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. Curious, I went to choose her most reviewed and read book - The Vegetarian (2007) to save for later read, but had never had the chance to read it until last week.

Han Kang interviewed at Nobel Prize for Literature 2024

The Vegetarian, for me, is a book about women navigating personal choices, in accordance and against societal expectations. The book is a compilation of 3 perspectives which tells the story of Yeong-hye, a truly “normal” girl, with average looks and nice demeanors (according to her husband), yet when she dreams of a strange dream, with vicious images of animals, she decides to turn vegetarian. Since, she is met with opposition from her husband, her own family, and her brother-in-law has sexual interests in her.

First thoughts:

As somebody who has not read that much, I find it difficult to enjoy the book without a concrete explanation of why Yeong-hye goes vegan. Yes, she is haunted by those dreams, and for the first time in life, she wants to make choices that are personal to her instead of following suit of others’ expectations. But surely, it shouldn’t be something that changes overnight?

However, as a person who regularly conjures self-conflicts, I came up with an explanation where her dreams are just a depiction of her reality. The consumption of meats is an act she has seen her entire life, yet has never questioned. In Korean culture, eating meats is not just the norm, it’s a tradition, and going vegan should only be regarded as an act of religious or due to some sickness that prohibits you from consuming meats. Needless to say, as a woman, Yeong-hye’s refusal to eat meat when her husband and father offered is not only considered selfish, but it’s challenging a patriarchal society that she lives in and hence is outrageous.

It’s your body, you can treat it however you please. The only area where you’re free to do just as you like.

Yet she couldn’t treat her own body as she pleases. Not a single time did the people around her pursued asking her about the details of what happened. As soon as they heard “I had a strange dream” as her reason for going vegan, they let her be. It’s reasonable that they would deem her actions as incomprehensible (so did I initially because there were not a lot of exposition into why that dream haunted Yeong-hye). But the history of men wanting to take control over women’ bodies is so deeply rooted, that it no longer came as a shock to me (more like annoyance) reading about how her husband perceived her rebellious act.

Yeong-hye’s inner battle was never elucidated, the book was about external glimpses, of how her husband became embarassed at her when she refused to eat meat at a work-party. How her brother-in-law objectifies her body to satisfy his own lust, how her sister failed to acknowledge her intention, but only her physical, debilitating health. It’s important for me to realize that when you refuse to engage with constructive discourse, your perception of somebody else is dead, unchanging. That were what people around her viewed her, none attempted to truly help.

Personal reflection:

I used to have a period of 3 months where I went full vegan. It was after my mother passed away due to lung cancer when I was 17. I remember being met with oppositions, my family thought it was unnecessary to do so. I went vegan out of respect and love for her, my mother follows Buddhism, and in Buddhism people tend to eat vegetarian out of love for life itself. She used to do that too, not everyday but regularly, twice at least every month. Maybe that’s why I feel so deeply connected with being called what I do “unncessary”. Often, it’s more about the people around you not trying to understand your perspective. I was grieving, but at the same time, that was the most healthy time physically for me. I do feel like eating lots of veggies are great, maybe this need further investigation.

I want to close this review with a part of the book that I love deeply:

The feeling that she had never really lived in this world caught her by surprise. It was a fact. She had never lived. Even as a child, as far back as she could remember, she had done nothing but endure. She had believed in her own inherent goodness, her humanity, and lived accordingly, never causing anyone harm. Her devotion to doing things the right way had been unflagging, all her successes had depended on it, and she would have gone on like that indefinitely. She didn’t understand why, but faced with those decaying buildings and straggling grasses, she was nothing but a child who had never lived.

Personal rating: 3.5/5